Book: Dear Mr Knightley by Katherine Reay

Published November 2013 by Nelson, Thomas, Inc

Source/Format: own the e-book

Series: None

Genre: Adult Fiction/Chick Lit/Christian/Inspirational

What It’s About: 

Samantha Moore has always hidden behind the words of others namely, her favorite characters in literature. Now, she will learn to write her own story by giving that story to a complete stranger.

Sam is, to say the least, bookish. An English major of the highest order, her diet has always been Austen, Dickens, and Shakespeare. The problem is, both her prose and conversation tend to be more Elizabeth Bennet than Samantha Moore.

But life for the twenty-three-year-old orphan is about to get stranger than fiction. An anonymous, Dickensian benefactor (calling himself Mr. Knightley) offers to put Sam through Northwestern University s prestigious Medill School of Journalism. There is only one catch: Sam must write frequent letters to the mysterious donor, detailing her progress.

As Sam’s dark memory mingles with that of eligible novelist Alex Powell, her letters to Mr. Knightley become increasingly confessional. While Alex draws Sam into a world of warmth and literature that feels like it’s straight out of a book, old secrets are drawn to light. And as Sam learns to love and trust Alex and herself, she learns once again how quickly trust can be broken.

Reminding us all that our own true character is not meant to be hidden, Reay’s debut novel follows one young woman’s journey as she sheds her protective persona and embraces the person she was meant to become.

What I Thought:

If I could use one phrase to describe Dear Mr Knightley, it would be this:

I don’t care.

I really don’t.  I don’t care enough about Sam or Merrill or Alex or the letters to actually care.  And I definitely don’t care enough about what happened to actually dislike the book.

I disliked Sam so much!  I understand why she clung to books but at the same time, I felt like she hid behind them.  As much as I understand why she had so many walls up, it was irritating, because the only thing I feel like I know about her is that she’s judgmental and sees people as a character in one of her books.  She doesn’t seem to care about relating or interacting with anyone around her, and she came across as feeling like she’s better than everyone around her because she quotes Jane Austen all the time.  And I love Jane Austen, but even this was too much.  She really wanted her life to be a Jane Austen novel.

I would say that it falls into the Christian lit/Inspirational category.  I felt like it was there, but Reay was trying too hard to make it not seem like it was.  And I was definitely surprised by it, because it came out of nowhere…but I also feel like I shouldn’t have been surprised because she’s an orphan who has this mysterious benefactor.  I don’t think it would have made a difference in how I feel about the book, but keep that in mind if you decide to pick up this book.

Rating:

2 stars.  I don’t care enough to like Dear Mr Knightley, and I felt like it was really bland with no personality.

Book: The Geography Of You And Me by Jennifer E. Smith

Published April 2014 by Little, Brown Books For Young Readers|235 pages

Source/Format: borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

What It’s About:

and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart 

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout.

After they’re rescued, they spend a single night together, wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is restored, so is reality. Lucy soon moves to Edinburgh with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father.

Lucy and Owen’s relationship plays out across the globe as they stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and – finally – a reunion in the city where they first met.

A carefully charted map of a long-distance relationship, Jennifer E. Smith’s new novel shows that the center of the world isn’t necessarily a place. It can be a person, too.

What I Thought:

I thought Geography was really cute!  Of course, I didn’t love it like Statistical Probability, but I still liked it!

I don’t know if I’m the biggest fan of Lucy and Owen.  I mean, I liked the part in the elevator, and I really wish they spent more time stuck in the elevator.  I’m not sure what I expected with their relationship, but it felt like a lot of waiting for them to finally see each other after moving, and I felt like there was a lot of regret on their part.  Which I get but I just really wanted to see them see each other again.  It just didn’t seem like their connection was all that strong, and I think that’s why I had trouble rooting for them- I was just as fine with them not being together.  And that’s never good for a cute, fluffy romance.

I thought there was too much filler, and while I don’t mind it (in small doses), it also made the book feel really slow and forced. I wanted the warm, fuzzy feels, and I don’t think it delivered on that because of the fact that the characters didn’t interact a lot after they both moved…and yet, they hated that they weren’t around each other.  It didn’t make a lot of sense to me.  But I liked the idea of e-mails from one person and postcards from the other.  And I liked seeing them travel all over the place- Lucy in Europe and Owen in the U.S.

I did like the fact that the book was open-ended- it makes me wonder how things turned out for the characters (hopefully better than what we saw in the book).

My Rating:

3 stars.  It’s cute and fun, but I didn’t feel the romance at all.

Book: Talon by Julie Kagawa

Published October 2014 by Harlequin Teen|258 pages

Source/Format: borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: Talon #1

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy/Paranormal/Re-telling

What It’s About: 

In Julie Kagawa’s groundbreaking modern fantasy series, dragons walk among us in human form.

Long ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and they’re positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser.

Ember and Dante Hill are the only sister and brother known to dragonkind. Trained to infiltrate society, Ember wants to live the teen experience and enjoy a summer of freedom before taking her destined place in Talon. But destiny is a matter of perspective, and a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, she and her brother are hunted by the Order of St. George.

Soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian has a mission to seek and destroy all dragons, and Talon’s newest recruits in particular. But he cannot kill unless he is certain he has found his prey: and nothing is certain about Ember Hill. Faced with Ember’s bravery, confidence and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything that the Order has ingrained in him: and what he might be willing to give up to find the truth about dragons.

What I Thought:

I didn’t like Talon as much as I thought I would!  I love Julie Kagawa, and she’s definitely an auto-buy author for me, so when I saw she was doing a series involving dragons, I couldn’t wait to see her take on them.

So, the very basic plot reminds me of Firelight by Sophie Jordan.  But since it’s been several years since I’ve read it, I couldn’t even begin to tell you if there are any other similarities.

I really love Kagawa’s take on dragons.  She made fairies interesting and unique in the Iron Fey, and I really liked her vampires in the Blood Of Eden series, and I love the dragons and their history in this one.  I loved that there’s an order of St George- even though I know there’s something about St. George and dragons, I have no idea what that history is.  But you still get that Talon and St. George have quite the history, and I’m hoping we learn more about it in the next book.

It didn’t have the same world-building that her other series had, and I really missed that.  Don’t get me wrong, you get glimpses that this is a very interesting world, and it’s really hard to not compare it to her other series, but as I was reading, I found I didn’t really care about what Talon was really up to, or what was going on with Ember and Dante.  Ember was really self-centered and while I understand that her summer in California is freedom to her, she also didn’t seem to care about what would happen if she got caught and sent back to Talon.

Honestly, I was pretty disinterested in Ember’s story, and I think the fact that I love Julie Kagawa is the reason why I kept going.  If it were most anyone else, I probably would have abandoned it.  Still, I did finish it, and I do want to keep reading the series, if only to see how certain things work themselves out.  Mostly because I really like Kagawa, and I’m willing to give this series a chance because she has a way of making you see dragons and fairies and vampires differently.  And I think there’s a lot of potential for it to be interesting. Maybe the rest of the series needs some set-up?

I am curious about Garrett and what will happen to him after the way things turned out.  I really feel like we got much more about Talon than we did about St. George, so I’m hoping we learn more about how they’re organized and what they’re like in the books to come.  Talon is also fairly interesting, but I wasn’t as interested as I would have expected.

Rating:

2 stars.  While I like the overall idea of the book, I also feel like it wasn’t as interesting as her other series.  But I’m a big enough Julie Kagawa fan that I’ll definitely give the rest of the series a chance.

Book: Miss Mayhem by Rachel Hawkins

Published April 2015 by Penguin Young Readers Group|208 pages

Source/Format: borrow the e-book from the library

Series: Rebel Belle #2

Genre: YA Paranormal/Re-telling

What It’s About:

Life is almost back to normal for Harper Price. The Ephors have been silent after their deadly attack at Cotillion months ago, and best friend Bee has returned after a mysterious disappearance. Now Harper can return her focus to the important things in life: school, canoodling with David, her nemesis-turned-ward-slash-boyfie, and even competing in the Miss Pine Grove pageant.

Unfortunately, supernatural chores are never done. The Ephors have decided they’d rather train David than kill him. The catch: Harper has to come along for the ride, but she can’t stay David’s Paladin unless she undergoes an ancient trial that will either kill her…or connect her to David for life.

What I Thought:

Rebel Belle is one I have mixed feelings about.  I liked it, and it was fun and funny but after reading this one, I feel like the first book was a lot better as a stand-alone- unless there’s a third book that manages to be totally awesome, because even though I liked Miss Mayhem, I think I also would have been fine not reading this one.

The thing is, I just didn’t care about the Ephors or Harper and David and the trials and finally knowing what happened to Bee.  It just didn’t live up to the expectations I had going into it.  I was expecting more action, and it felt like it really dragged for most of the book.

For pretty much the entire book, I felt like it didn’t really add to what happened in the first book, and is basically just trying to get us to the next book.  Which is disappointing, because I had so much fun reading Rebel Belle and I wanted more of that.

I did find myself with questions, like what happened to the Ephors?  Seriously, I want to know.  And what is in store for Harper and crew, with how everything ended?  I think it brought up more questions than answers.

I had some high hopes for Harper and David, but I didn’t really care about what happened.  I understand why things happened the way they did, but overall, I just didn’t care that things ended the way they did.  It is such a cliffhanger, so if you’re not a fan of cliffhangers, you may want to wait until the next one comes out to read this one.

Rating:

3 stars.  I don’t really have a lot to say about it, and nothing really stands out, even though I just read it.  It was fun, but I didn’t love it either.

Book: Undivided by Neal Shusterman

Published October 2014 by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers|366 pages

Source/Format: borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: Unwind Dystology #4

Genre: YA Sci-Fi/Dystopic Thriller

What It’s About:

Teens control the fate of America in the fourth and final book in the New York Times bestselling Unwind dystology by Neal Shusterman.

Proactive Citizenry, the company that created Cam from the parts of unwound teens, has a plan: to mass produce rewound teens like Cam for military purposes. And below the surface of that horror lies another shocking level of intrigue: Proactive Citizenry has been suppressing technology that could make unwinding completely unnecessary. As Conner, Risa, and Lev uncover these startling secrets, enraged teens begin to march on Washington to demand justice and a better future.

But more trouble is brewing. Starkey’s group of storked teens is growing more powerful and militant with each new recruit. And if they have their way, they’ll burn the harvest camps to the ground and put every adult in them before a firing squad; which could destroy any chance America has for a peaceful future.

What I Thought:

I have such mixed feelings about UnDivided.  I really liked it, and yet I was also disappointed in how things ended.  It very much felt like it was added on to the series and yet it also felt like it was setting up something for a fifth book.  Which is weird considering the series is only 4 books.

We do see a lot of change, like a moratorium on unwinding, and things are definitely tied up.  I really wish we saw a little more of what things were like after the protest in D.C. and after election day, because I just couldn’t get over the fact that the book ends with Connor giving his family a second chance.

Overall, it felt like the book was missing something the other three books have.  And overall, you realize how fucked up the entire unwinding industry and Proactive Citizenry is.  There was this viable option, and everything humanly possible was done to hide it.  But I am glad that it is seen as an option again.

I did like all of the perspectives.  It’s really been one of my favorite things of this series, and I like that you gets so many different sides to it.  But…the multiple perspectives were a little much in this one, and I feel like there was too much going on, and it felt like some things were dropped or forgotten about.  I also really liked the articles scattered throughout the book, and how it connects real world stories to what’s gong on with the book.

I had a harder time getting into it and caring about everything going on.  I just wasn’t invested in it the way I was in the other ones.  I think part of it was the different perspectives and because it felt like it was added on.

Rating:

4 stars, because of how what we learn fits into the overall story and world but also because it felt like it was a random addition to the series that seems to be setting up a possible fifth book.